Travis Japan, “VIIsual.”

When Tokyo J-pop septet Travis Japan made its full-length debut in late 2023, after years of toiling away trying to build an identity, it arrived on a whopping 19 songs that blended funky disco and glittering pop. A year later, the group is back with a tighter collection of 13 songs that expand its sound—and told in simultaneously released Japanese and English versions—usually in effective ways.

The English version, the one RIFF received for review, is full of romantic and romanticized love odes, sugar rushes and fever dreams. It solidifies Travis Japan as a retro disco- and funk-loving acolyte of American bands like Sly and the Family Stone and Kool & The Gang.

But let’s start off on the album’s biggest variation: pop-punk closer “Underdogs.” The song features driving guitar lines and multipart harmonies (and requisite “ohhh-ahhs”) over fast-paced percussion. While the lyricism of the album, at least translated to English, isn’t too deep, it’s top notch on this song. It’s a bro love song—”I got you guys and know that is enough”—with the emphasis placed in the right places to drive the momentum all the way through. I don’t know if members Chaka, Umi, Shime, Noel, Shizu, Genta and Machu play their own instruments, but if they do, it would be a crime not to break them out when they’re performing this one live.

The other unexpected quirk comes on album opener (and single) “Crazy Crazy,” a surf-guitar-tinged funk tune on the choruses and sugary pop on the verses. If this group is listening to the likes of the Ventures, it’s doing more due diligence on American music (much of which helped what rock and pop have become) than K-pop groups who’ve fallen in love with our golden age of hip-hop and looked no further.

The rap is of course here as well. The best of the bunch is on “BO$$Y,” the album’s most robust pop song with heavy bass and vocals that blend soft singing with rougher rapping. “Fireflies” has the members trading rhymes over meandering synth horn instrumentation. “Thrill” works in a drill beat and AutoTuned vocals.

The retro-influenced materials arrives early on in the album, starting with “Golden Girl,” which intersperses funky bass with keyboard vamping and handclaps, calling back to debut album Road To A.

“Your spell got me out of my mind!” one of the members sings on the sunshiny love tune about all the ways in which an object of their attention affects Travis Japan.

The next song, “Sweetest Tune,” is a thumping dance floor number, flavored by disco (with string and brass sections) as much as more modern electronic music.

The AutoTuned vocals, woozy synths and syncopated hi-hat-riding beat of “Rush” precedes the slinky styling of mid tempo piano-led “Whiskey and Tonic,” the album’s most mature track. The song has sonic callbacks to both Elton John and groups like Kool & The Gang. That’s followed by single “TGI Friday Night,” a disco banger with catchy rhyming schemes and a clap track that’ll make you do Will Smith’s dance from the “Men In Black” theme song.

The album’s softer ballads verge on adult contemporary sounds. These don’t strike as much of a note, but the best of the bunch is “Staying with you,” which offers twinkling piano key strikes and a clapped rhythm.

“No matter what the future holds, I’ll be your hope,” the group sings. Interestingly, Travis Japan members have dived into acting in their home country. “Staying with you” will be featured in a film in which Umi (Kaito Nakamura) stars, “Yano-kun no Futsuu no Hibi.” “Sweetest Tune” is the theme song for TV series “Tokyo Tower,” starring Genta (Genta Matsuda).

Single “Fly Higher” serves as the theme for anime “Tasuketsu (Fate of the Majority),” which stars Noel (Noel Kawashima) in his voice-acting debut. This song is a power ballad framed by an industrial-sounding (think Chemical Brothers) hyperactive beat.

“I know the future is ready for us,” the group sings. “We are not alone/ I’ve got you by my side.”

Contact editor Roman Gokhman on Bluesky at Roman.riffmagazine.com.